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+--- Thread: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 (/showthread.php?tid=424)
Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - Joe - 12-15-2025
![[Image: top10.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/GmxvHbsb/top10.jpg)
Over five years ago, we welcomed 2020 - the year of cyberpunk.
At the time, we had no idea how numerous the releases of adventure games would be over the next few years.
Now, join us as we try to determine the best adventure games released over the past half decade.
Some of you with a good grasp of maths may have noticed that the years 2020-2025 are actually six years, not five. But 2020–2025 looks better than 2021-2025, so don't be such a nerd and let's begin.
The rules:
Choose 10 adventure games released in the years 2020-2025 and rank them. Depending on their position, they will gain a different number of points:
1st place: 10 points
2nd place: 9 points
3rd place: 8 points
4th place: 7 points
5th place: 6 points
6th place: 5 points
7th place: 4 points
8th place: 3 points
9th place: 2 points
10th place: 1 point
Honourable mentions: You can list games that didn't make your top 10 but are too good to not acknowledge. Every honourable mention gets 0.5 points.
Dishonourable mentions: You can also list games that were so bad or so disappointing that you just need to talk about them. They won't receive any negative points, but it's a good way to voice your grievances. Hot takes and unpopular opinions are more than welcome.
In January next year, I will count up all the points for the games you posted and create a top 10 list.
Q&A:
Q: I'm new to adventure games/I don't play much nowadays/my tastes are way too refined for modern "games", so I don't have 10 games to put on the list.
A: Don't worry - you can list a fewer number of titles.
Q: I don't know if X is an adventure game or a different genre.
A: If you think it's an adventure game, then it is an adventure game.
Q: How many honourable mentions can I list?
A: As many as you like. But, since I'm the one who has to count all those points, please be merciful!
My top 10 list:
1. Lucy Dreaming
2. The Legend of Skye
3. Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Dry Twice
4. The Case of the Golden Idol
5. The Drifter
6. The Will of Arthur Flabbington
7. Loco Motive
8. PRIM
9. Not Another Weekend
10. The Brilliant Coup
Honourable mentions:
Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard
Born Punk
Chants of Sennaar
Elroy and the Aliens
Mindlock - The Apartment
Slender Threads
Strangeland
The Abandoned Planet
The Hand of Glory
Unusual Findings
VirtuaVerse
Voodoo Detective
Wildwood Down
Dishonourable mentions:
The Adventures of the Black Hawk – I rarely see a game that was intentionally sabotaged by the devs themselves. While I can understand and even respect the developers' wish to create a p'n'c game in the spirit of early '90s games, they went too far. Especially in their stubborn ways of trying to inconvenience and annoy the players. You need to enter a password from the manual every time you launch the game, no QOL so I hope you like pixel hunting and major clues in one-time dialogues that you can't listen to again. And my personal nemesis: puzzles that should be solved in a logical manner, but can't be because the developer said so.
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - srnickolas - 12-15-2025
top10 (yeah this is probably mixed the more I think the more I switch places so i just put these lists on impulse)
1. The Legend of Skye
2. Lair of the Clockwork God
3. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
4. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (English release)
5. Foolish Mortals
6. Urban Witch Story
7. You're Watching Icebox!
8. Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer
9. Lucy Dreaming
10. The Will of Arthur Flabbington
Honorable mentions
Hyperdrive Inn
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (haven't finished yet but seems very good so far)
The Abandoned Planet
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit
Mutropolis
LumineNight
Mothmen 1966
An English Haunting
Murders on the Yangtze River
The Drifter
The Witch's Lullaby
Loco Motive
NORCO
No Case Should Remain Unsolved
The Case of the Golden Idol (+DLC)
Yet Another Killing Game
The Telwynium
James Peris 2: The fountain of eternal drunkenness
Submachine: Legacy (remaster of older games released in 2023, I don't know if it can be here if not ignore)
Prim
Midnight Scenes: A Safe Place
Beyond Shadowgate
D3ad Hand
Slender Threads
The Hand of Glory
AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative
VirtuaVerse
Papetura
Not Another Weekend
Shards of God
Nightmare Frames
Strangeland
Riddlewood Manor
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II
Luna The Shadow Dust
Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Dry Twice
Jesus I'll stop here
Dishonorable mentions:
I'll agree with The Adventures of the Black Hawk and add Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony which literally was a mess in almost every way (the UI, gameplay, graphics, crude progression, bugs ...). I played other games i found underwhelming but the reason I mention this title is cause it got a 4/5 star in The adventure gamers site that I cannot begin to grasp, an opinion is an opinion but that game was so amateurish and originally was sold for 10 bucks, it just left me speechless
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - LeftHandedGuitarist - 12-15-2025
I'm a patient gamer that tends to be several years behind on new releases, so I've actually only played this handful of adventure games from the 2020s. Here's how I'd rank them:
- Call of the Sea
- Immortality
- The Forgotten City
- Tell Me Why
- The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark
- Stray
- Star Trek: Resurgence
- Cleo: A Pirate's Tale
- Life is Strange: True Colours
- Lake
Honourable mention:
If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - Joe - 12-15-2025
(12-15-2025, 03:37 PM)srnickolas Wrote: 1. The Legend of Sky
![[Image: 98b83b7a34d10a0c522b144db7dc0422.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/98/b8/3b/98b83b7a34d10a0c522b144db7dc0422.jpg)
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - srnickolas - 12-15-2025
Yeah my fellow co-adventurer, this game ticked all the right buttons inside indeed
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - Joshua AGH - 12-15-2025
If you think this is a tough choice, wait until you see the project our staff is currently working on.
Because of that, I can't make my choices public just yet but I've got a TON of things to say on this
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - Dryade - 12-16-2025
Here's my list. I haven't played The Drifter yet, and from everything I've heard I suspect it would be in it, but as of now:
1. Foolish Mortals
2. Markus Ritter - Ghosts of the Past (Super fringe, I know, but I miss Point and Click FMV's like Gabriel Knight 2 and Phantasmagoria)
3. If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers (Incredibly underrated free game)
4. Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged
5. Loco Motive
6. The Crimson Diamond
7. The Legend of Skye
8. Nightmare Frames
9. An English Haunting
10. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow
Honorable mentions:
Cleo - a pirate's tale
Lucy Dreaming
Pentiment
Slender Threads
Elroy and the Aliens
The Beekeeper's Picnic
Markus Ritter - The Lost Family
Rosewater
3 minutes to Midnight
Old Skies
Unusual Findings
The Will of Arthur Flabbington
Prim
Dark Nights with Poe and Munro
Dishonorable mention:
Wolf Among Us 2, where are you???
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - Baron Blubba - 12-16-2025
1. Lucy Dreaming - The character, the story, the writing, the graphics, the gameplay. As good as it gets.
2. Legend of Skye - The very challenging but fair gameplay had me up late at night and then thinking about it while trying to fall asleep and then waking me up in the middle of the night to try a solution I dreamed about. Great world full of memorable characters and scenes.
3. The Phantom Fellows - It's classic 'n cozy by-the-numbers adventure gaming, yet there's nothing else like it. Superlatively entertaining script.The only flaw is the cliffhanger ending and maybe one dud of a pixel hunt.
4. Lost in Play - It made me smile, laugh, and take screenshots to share with family and friends. A great time from start to finish, pure feel-good entertainment with a perfect challenge level.
5. There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension - I had no idea what to expect from this game. Thought I'd hate it due to its smug hipster meta-ness. Eventually heard enough praise for it that I decided to give it a try. And was blown away. Like Lost In Play, this is a game that will entertain and make you feel good. It's conceptually brilliant without ever not being fun. Except for one part where the game forgets the very important rule that The Game That Spoofs A Boring Gameplay Loop From Another Game Should Be Very Careful Not To Become Boring Itself. Other than that one section, There Is No Game is the best game that never was.
6. Norco - Compelling plot that is exceptionally well written. Atmospherically evocative like almost nothing else, thanks to coalescence of all the elements: Words, graphics, music, and gameplay.
7. Foolish Mortals - Very close to the perfect Lucas Arts game that never was. Only let down by the amount of explain-away exposition toward the end of the game and the classic dumb saw-it-coming-a-lifetime-away trope of 'hero does all the work, bad guy emerges and capitalizes on it at the end.' It also talks too much: While all of the writing is good, there's too much of it.
8. Wildwood Down - In my heart, this game is in the top 5. I've never played anything like it in terms of setting or character. And it's the only adventure game that looks like Parappa the Rapper! If not for a couple of glitchy sections (which I believe have since been fixed) and one or two moments of questionable puzzle design (in a game full of great puzzle design!), it would have rated higher.
9. Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark - Breezy enough to be breezy, challenging enough to make you feel smarter than Dooley, funny enough to make you squirt ectoplasm out your nose. It does everything it sets out to do perfectly.
10. Return to Monkey Island - I really want to rank this one higher. I reviewed it for the Hotspot and had very few complaints. In fact, it might be my favorite Monkey Island after Curse of Monkey Island!
Honorable Mentions 1st Class (no particular order):
Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard - Would have probably been a top ten game, but the last 25% was a letdown. Not bad, but a big step down from the initial greatness.
Cleo: A Pirates Tale - A cute top-down adventure game with a great piratey theme, a good plot, fun puzzles, and likable characters. It purports to be 'Zelda-ish' but it's not --it's pure adventure, through and through.
The Drifter - While it couldn't maintain the sheer force of awesomeness that carried the first half of the game full speed ahead like a freight train, the rest of the game was still good enough to ALMOST land The Drifter on my top 10 list.
Crimson Diamond - I loved this game, wish I could put it in my top 10 but I enjoyed all those *just a smidge* more.
An English Haunting - This is my favorite game by Post Modern Adventures and it hurts a little to not have it in my Top 10. Brilliant writing and voice acting, with the perfect level of difficulty that makes you feel like you are still playing a game, but doesn't get in the way of the story moving forward.
Nightmare Frames - Not into horror but thoroughly enjoyed this one, despite being pretty gruesome and I guess you could say scary. From the creator of An English Haunting.
Urban Witch Story - Great presentation of a slice of life from a real night in American history. Primitive graphics convey the time and place perfectly, and even the sometimes poor translation adds character. Also from the developer of An English Haunting.
Excavation of Hob's Barrow - Phenomenal atmosphere, great characterization. Classic point and click goodness!
Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer - Wasn't a fan of the first game (it was merely 'ok' at best), and was ready to be the contrarian who would slate this game, too. Alas, it's too good. One of the best classic point and clicks of the last few years, for sure.
Seance of Blake Manor - Only played a few hours of this. I suspect that if I'd finished it, it would end up in the top 10, but it's too in depth for me at the moment.
Roki - Remarkably heartfelt game overcame a few small design flaws and won me over entirely. A world to get lost in, containing a mystery with answers worth finding.
True Fear: Forsaken Souls series (multiple parts, final part came out in 2025 so I'm counting it) - Beneath the Hidden Object veneer, find one of the most satisfying inventory based puzzle games of recent memory. The story is very good but goes a little crazy toward the end. I recommend NOT playing all the games one after another, as the excellent gameplay will become repetitive.
Virtuaverse - I wish I could have included this severely underrated game in my top 10. Amazing graphics and music, a unique world and story, and some 90's-difficulty level puzzles that are *mostly* fair with just a couple of eye-rolling duds.
Honorable Mentions 2nd Class:
Rosewater - Good but disappointing. I didn't care for most of the characters, and I don't like choice based games that find a way to reprimand the player no matter which choice they make (perhaps in a display of 'even handed' characterization). I want to play THE story, not some mottled version of the story based on what choices I made, based on the mood I was currently in, based on whether that day I feel like playing as myself or as I think the main character would act.
Locomotive - Probably the best visual comedy of any adventure game I can remember...since Monkey Island 3, at least!. Unfortunately, I got bored replaying the same events from different perspectives; and many of the puzzles, while they worked, just weren't fun to do.
Slender Threads - Nothing fancy about this one, just a solid breezy-cozy adventure game with cool graphics.
Elroy and the Aliens - An enjoyable romp! If you like point and clickers, you'll have a good time.
Voodoo Detective - Like Slender Threads, this game won't blow you away, but it will thoroughly entertain you for a while with good puzzles, characters, and writing.
Honorable Mentions with No Class:
Brownie's Adventure
Brownie's Adventure 2
The first one was better, but I enjoyed both. Are they 'good games'? I don't know. But they made me laugh a lot and think a little, simultaneously growing and slaughtering my brain cells at the same time. That's quite an accomplishment, so the games get mentioned.
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - MenhirMike - 12-16-2025
This is so tough to rank...
01. The Crimson Diamond
02. Ace Attorney Investigations 2
03. The Case of the Golden Idol
04. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow
05. Lucy Dreaming
06. BROK the InvestiGator
07. Perfect Tides
08. Riven (Remake)
09. Yes, Your Grace
10. The Forgotten City
Honorable Mention to Foolish Mortal, not ranking it because recency bias.
RE: Community Top 10 adventure games 2020-2025 - Karlok - 12-17-2025
1 Blue Prince
2 The Case of the Golden Idol
3 IMMORTALITY
4 There Is No Game
5 Chants of Sennaar
6 The Roottrees Are Dead
7 Pentiment
8 The Longing
9 The Drifter
10 Riven Remake
Honourable mentions:
Excavation of Hobs’s Barrow – Mindlock: The Apartment – Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard – The Crimson Diamond